Publication Order of Desert Flowers Mystery Books

Publication Order of Omnibus Books

Lee Hollis is the pen name used by the brother and sister pair of writers named Rick Copp and Holly Simason. The pair has written a successful novel series consisting of 6 mystery novels. The series is called ‘Hayley Powell Food & Cocktail Mystery’ and features the main character Hayley Powell who owns a food and cocktail shop. Hayley has been described by Lee Hollis as a newspaper manager and a cooking column writer from Maine, who always ends up on the wrong side of the events and has to make her way out of the mysteries surrounding her life. The brother-sister pair have enjoyed huge success by writing together. Apart from being a writer, Rick Copp is also a veteran television and film producer and scriptwriter. He has also written a couple of other mystery novel series’ on his own. Holly Simason is an award winning cocktail and food columnist for a reputed newspaper in Bar Harbor, Maine. Rick lives in Palm Springs in California, whereas Holly lives in Maine.

As of now the mystery series is comprised of 6 novels, but they have announced that they are going to release 3 more books in the series by 2016. In addition to that, they are planning to write an anthology of mystery novellas based on the holiday theme, which is also going to be published in the year 2016. Rick states that he had the dream of becoming an author at a very young age. He began his hobby by writing television scripts of old TV series’ in his fifth grade. The interest in television allowed him to take up the career as a professional script writer for television series. Later, he began writing sitcom scripts along with David Goodman. Over the next four years, he continuously collaborated with David on a number of scripts which eventually became successful. He also started writing scripts for films and spoofs of some of the popular movies of his time. However, he always mentions that collaborating with her sister Holly for writing the mystery novel series has always been close to his heart. Rick’s main focus was on writing exciting novels along with her sister under the pseudonym Lee Hollis for the Hayley Powell Food & Cocktails Mystery series. The novels of the series have been quite successful and the first five titles have gone on to feature on the Paperback Best Seller list of the Barnes and Noble Mass Market.

The novels of the series written by Hollis have been published between the years 2012 and 2015. The first novel of the series was titled ‘Death of a Kitchen Diva’, which was published by the Kensington publishing house in the year 2012. The plot of the novel is set in Bar Harbor, Maine, United States, where the main character of the series, Hayley Powell resides and works as a food and cocktail columnist for a reputed newspaper in Maine. The author has described Hayley as a small town columnist who always finds herself on the other side of the deadline whenever a mysterious murder takes place in the city. The author has also described the town of Bar Harbor as an idyllic coastal region. Hayley is introduced as a single mother who is always busy with some or the other assignments being handed over to her by her boss at the Island Times. She is given a new assignment to take over the food column of the newspaper. Upon receiving the assignment Hayley seems to be in a dilemma as she does not consider herself to be a good food and cocktail columnist. She has always been an office manager and had never taken up the job of writing any time before. However, she is always praised by her friends for the mouth-watering dishes that she makes for them and is motivated to carry out the job of being a food columnist. The tempting extra income that she will be getting for her new assignment also forces to go for it. Soon, her first column becomes the talk of the town and everyone seems to be chatting about it. However, Hayley’s success follows with a problem as always. A rival food writer named Karen Appelbaum is found dead with her face down in a bowl of creamy clam chowder, which was described by Hayley in her food column. As a result, she becomes the prime suspect in the murder. She begins to carry out the investigations herself in order to clear her name of the murder. She takes help from her best friends, a glamorous real estate agent and a lobster woman who is pregnant. The investigations lead Hayley to a growing list of suspects and reveal terrifying secrets about the victim. Hayley begins to realize that she has landed herself in a dangerous situation with a brutal killer.

The second novel of the series was published in the year 2012 by the Kensington publishing house. It was titled ‘Death of a Country Fried Redneck’. The plot of this novel continues with the description of the mysterious life of the main character, Hayley Powell, who works as a food and cocktail columnist for the Island Times in Maine. She thinks that she is done with solving murders in Maine and decides to move to the South. However, another recipe of disaster awaits her over there. Being a single mother of a teenage daughter and a columnist, always keeps Hayley busy with the deadlines and looking after her daughter, who aspires to become a singer and a songwriter. Soon, a country music superstar named Wade Springer enters in the town and Hayley is asked to be a personal chef to the American Idol. Wade becomes so much impressed by her home cooking that he hires her to be his chef and also invites her for dinner with him alone. Wade and Hayley seem to be getting closer. However, a dead body turns up which causes a change of events. The dead body is found to be of a roadie called Mickey Pritchett, who was believed to be torched by Wade’s tour bus. However, Mickey was actually shot dead and his mouth was stuffed with Hayley’s trademark chicken legs. Soon, it is revealed that Mickey already had a number of enemies in the town because of his drinking habits. Hayley considers it necessary to investigate the matter on her own and find the real killer as the reputation of Wade was at stake.

Jack Reacher is back! Personally I thought this was the 2nd best Reacher book yet. The latest book in the Jack Reacher series, Past Tense, came out November 5th. Family secrets come back to haunt Reacher when he decides to visit the town his father was born in. Why? Because when he visits there he finds out no-one with the last name of Reacher has ever lived there. It leaves him wondering - did his father ever live there? More Details.

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Featured Series

One of my favourite series is the Brilliance Saga by Marcus Sakey and it is our featured series of the month. It's just an incredible light sci-fi series that fans of "Dark Matter" would also enjoy. It's free on Kindle Unlimited too! More Details.

Featured Author

Our author of the month is Canadian author Opal Carew who writes erotic romance novels. Opal has written over 100 novels with multiple book series such as the Dirty Talk series and the Abducted series. If you’re a fan of erotic romance, be sure to check out Opal Carew.

Did You Know…

Jack Reacher never needs a watch, as he always knows what time it is in his head. This has sometimes played both major and minor parts in many of the plots of the novels he features in.